With regards to student attention in class, I've made a key observation which I've discovered is going to be one of my main challenges when actually teaching a class. The classes engagement or level of attention being given to the teacher, will depend on the level of achievers in the classroom. I've observed Dr. Pothier's general chemistry 1 course and her honors chemistry course, and there is a significant difference in every aspect that you could think of. When observing the general chemistry students, I notice that most students seem to have some level engagement while only 2 or 3 seem to have absolutely no interest in being inside the room at the time. Whereas with the honor students, every face is drilled directly towards the board and wherever Dr. P travels around the room their head will follow. They all have their notebooks open AND they are all taking notes. In comparison to the general chemistry 1 students, all will have their notebooks open but not all will be taking notes in their notebook. The differences are significant and numerous.
The general chemistry class has those same three or four kids that just seem to be not interested. During the teacher's lecture they are passing notes. When doing seat work they are just talking with each other. During lab work they are goofing around and not getting any work done. One of the students had her iPod taken away because she was listening to it during lecture. That is one thing I have a problem understanding the motivation for. She knew she wasn't going to get away with it, and the benefits of being able to listen to music through one ear bud over listening to the teacher talk couldn't be that great. She easily could have done a better job hiding it, I think she wanted to get it taken away. Does getting it taken away in front of the whole class validate for herself and the other students that she doesn't care about her work? As this year goes on I will be interested to see what other types of behavioral issues come up and how they may be resolved.
The general chemistry class has those same three or four kids that just seem to be not interested. During the teacher's lecture they are passing notes. When doing seat work they are just talking with each other. During lab work they are goofing around and not getting any work done. One of the students had her iPod taken away because she was listening to it during lecture. That is one thing I have a problem understanding the motivation for. She knew she wasn't going to get away with it, and the benefits of being able to listen to music through one ear bud over listening to the teacher talk couldn't be that great. She easily could have done a better job hiding it, I think she wanted to get it taken away. Does getting it taken away in front of the whole class validate for herself and the other students that she doesn't care about her work? As this year goes on I will be interested to see what other types of behavioral issues come up and how they may be resolved.